08.16.10

Summary: The attack on Android from multiple directions (Microsoft and Apple against phone makers, as well as Oracle against Google) shows why software patents are an abomination

IN the previous post about the “SCOracle” case [1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7] we attempted to find an explanation for Oracle harming its own asset, or at least looking to reduce fragmentation. Oracle has a history of opposing software patents (based on a statement pulled from many years ago) and its recently inherited product, ZFS, is still under attack by software patents.

One company which clearly suffers from software patents is eBay, which is under another attack this summer [1, 2]. Red Hat’s outspoken employee Jan Wildeboer says that “MSFT is cashing innovation tax (aka patent license money) for Android, now ORCL joins the scheme. And you still ask why #swpat [software patents] are wrong?”

Dan Ravicher from the SFLC is still trying to invalidate patents on two genes which relate to breast cancer, not just software patents. From The Prior Art blog:

In a motion filed quietly in late June, Christopher Hansen of the American Civil Liberties Union and Daniel Ravicher claim that remarks made by Federal Circuit Chief Judge Randall Rader at a biotechnology industry event show he may have a biased view of the case in question, Association of Molecular Pathology et. al. v. U.S. Patent and Trademark Office et. al, and should not be one of the three judges to decide the appeal.

Questioning Rader’s objectivity is an unusual move that underscores just how high the stakes are in the case at issue, in which several doctors’ groups have joined the ACLU and PubPat in seeking to invalidate patents on two genes related to breast cancer that are owned by Utah-based Myriad Genetics–and, more broadly, to challenge the legality of the thousands of genetic patents already in existence.

We wrote about gene patents before [1, 2]. They too are a ludicrous (mis)use of patent law — an attempt to own nature, not just mathematics. █

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